Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Director, Butler TMS Clinic and Neuromodulation Research Facility

Linda L. Carpenter, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry in the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Chief of the Mood Disorders Program at Butler Hospital. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. She did an internship in internal medicine, psychiatry residency, and research fellowship at Yale, and then joined the faculty at Brown in 1997. She has continued her path since then as a physician-researcher investigating the neurobiology of, and new treatments for, major depression and other mood and anxiety disorders. Dr. Carpenter has also conducted a number of randomized clinical trials sponsored by industry and NIH, investigating investigational drugs and devices for treating depression, including esketamine, Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS), Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). She is the founding Director of the Butler Hospital TMS Clinic and Neuromodulation Research Facility and co-author of several published TMS Clinical practice guidelines. Dr. Carpenter was engaged in TMS research prior to the first FDA clearance in 2008, and has remained active as a TMS clinician and researcher since then. She is a faculty member of several national TMS training courses and serves on the Board of Directors of the Clinical TMS Society. She is a member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Council on Research and has published extensively on TMS and other treatments for depression. 

TMS Associate Director

Dr. Joshua Brown is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology in the Research Scholar Track at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He is the Associate Director of the TMS clinic at Butler Hospital. He has a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Utah, an M.D. and Ph.D. in neurobiology, studying mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, from the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He completed an internship in Internal Medicine, a residency in “Brain Medicine” (combined Psychiatry and Neurology), an Interventional Psychiatry Track, and a concurrent research fellowship in brain stimulation at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2020.At Butler, his clinical work is primarily focused on providing Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for patients with treatment-resistant depression. He also studies how TMS causes lasting therapeutic changes to the brain.

TMS Clinical Supervisor/Neuromodulation Research Facility Coordinator

Mr. Eric Tirrell completed his undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Rhode Island.  He is the TMS clinical supervisor of Butler Hospital’s TMS Clinic and has been providing TMS treatment for major depressive disorder for over 5 years. He has extensive experience with all aspects of TMS clinical care and he is well versed in operating Neurostar, Magstim, Nexstim, and other investigational TMS device systems using a variety of TMS protocols. In addition to his role on the TMS clinical service, Eric also serves as the Research Coordinator for Butler’s Neuromodulation Research Facility. He works with a number of Brown University-based faculty and with project leaders and research staff in Butler’s COBRE Center for Neuromodulation to incorporate noninvasive brain stimulation techniques into their clinical research. He has had extensive training in the collection of physiological data and brain imaging for biomarker development and investigating brain network function and connectivity. His goals are to help develop optimized individual neuromodulation approaches for depression and to ultimately use TMS as a treatment modality for a wide range of conditions and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Lead TMS Technician

Ms. Ashley Logan completed her undergraduate degree in Sociology at Rhode Island College in Providence, RI. She is the Lead TMS Clinical Technician and has been providing TMS Treatment for Major depressive disorder for 3 years. She is well versed in operating the different TMS devices, while using various protocols. She spent time throughout college involved in different groups focusing on LGBTQ+ inclusion and advocacy on campus, as well as educational event planning dedicated to raising awareness on a plethora of topics including: partner violence, addiction, and community resources. Her main focus in the clinic is to help provide the best care for each individual person through a welcoming space, built trust and a well versed team that all work cohesively with the single goal of getting people better.

TMS Technician

Ms. Katelyn Audette is a skilled TMS Clinical Operator since Fall of 2018. She studied in Boston MA at Newbury College, graduated with BA in Psychology and Social Science. She treats clinical patients daily trained with numerous devices, some involving research as they are given the option to participate in ongoing research studies for their treatment series if interested. She thoroughly enjoys the face- to- face interactions with those being treated. Her goal is to provide the best possible care for each patient, understanding that building relationships based on trust and comfort make a large difference in the patient experience.

TMS Research Nurse

Ms. Melissa Burt graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Rhode Island (URI) in 1996. She completed an internship while at URI at Butler Hospital’s partial hospital in 1996 then shortly after, she was hired as a mental health worker.  She then received her CNA license and subsequently her RN license in 2004. She has worked for many years on the inpatient units at Butler with children, adults, and geriatrics.  In 2007, she crossed over to Mood Disorders Research and eventually to the TMS clinical service.

TMS Physician

Dr. Audrey Tyrka received her MD and PhD in medicine and psychology through a combined program at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed the psychiatry residency at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University with research training in clinical neuroscience. She is the Director of Research at Butler hospital, and also directs our Laboratory for Clinical and Translational Neuroscience. Dr. Tyrka is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown and Director of the NIMH-funded R25 Research Training Program in the Brown psychiatry residency program. Co-Director of the Initiative on Stress, Trauma, and Resilience in the Brown Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Dr. Tyrka's program of research is focused on discovering the social, behavioral and molecular mechanisms of risk and resilience in children and adults with a history of early adversity and trauma. She also has interest and experience with research and clinical work using neuromodulation approaches to treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and is an attending psychiatrist in our TMS program.

TMS Physician

Dr. Amy Halt received her MD and PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Iowa. She then moved to Brown University, where she completed adult psychiatry residency training as well as a geriatric psychiatry fellowship. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University. She has been an attending inpatient psychiatrist at Butler Hospital since 2014. Currently, she is the Unit Chief of the Senior Specialty Unit. She is active in teaching at all levels of medical training, including supervising medical students, adult psychiatry residents, and geriatric fellows (psychiatry and medicine) on the geriatric inpatient unit. She is also the Education Coordinator for the Brown Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship.

TMS Physician

Dr. Benjamin Greenberg has a BA in psychology from Amherst College, a PhD in neurosciences from UC San Diego, and an MD from the University of Miami, with psychiatry residency at Johns Hopkins. He then led adult OCD research at NIMH, where he performed the first transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study in that illness. At Butler Hospital and Brown since 2000, he has focused on invasive neurosurgeries including ventral capsulotomy and deep brain stimulation (DBS). FDA humanitarian approval of DBS for intractable OCD in 2009 was based on that work. His NIH funding has included R21, R01, U01, P50, and P20 grants.  He has a secondary focus in psychiatric genetics.  As a clinical psychiatrist, he has treated OCD for thirty years; and over the past five years has also treated PTSD, he previously led Butler outpatient services.  He currently directs the COBRE Center for Neuromodulation at Butler Hospital and co-directs the Center for Neuromodulation and Neurotechnology (CfNN) at the Providence VAMC (PVAMC), in both roles focusing on noninvasive brain stimulation.

TMS Physician

Dr. Lawrence Price attended the University of Michigan, where he  received a B.S. with highest honors in psychology and high distinction in 1974, followed by an M.D. in 1978. After an internship in internal medicine at Norwalk Hospital, he completed a residency and fellowship in psychiatry at Yale University. From 1982 until 1996, Dr. Price was on the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University, where he served as Associate Professor and Director of the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. Since 1996, he has been Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University. From 1996 to 2012, he was  Clinical Director, Director of Research, and Chair of the Institutional Review Board at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, subsequently serving as Chief Medical Officer from 2012 until 2014. He was President of Butler Hospital and Executive Chief of the Brain and Behavioral Health Service Line of Care New England from 2014 until 2017. He was identified by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the top ten authors of high-impact papers in psychiatry from 1990 to 1999. In addition to his research activities, Dr. Price has received numerous awards for his teaching and clinical work, and is Editor of the Brown University Psychopharmacology Update and Editor (with I. Stolerman) of the Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology, Second Edition.

TMS Physician

Dr. Brian Tesar received a B.A. with honors in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1987. He studied medicine and biochemistry and received his M.D. from the University of Illinois in 1992. Dr. Tesar completed a psychiatric residency program with Washington University in St. Louis in 1996. After completing his training, Dr. Tesar cared for patients in a variety of roles: as staff psychiatrist and day hospital medical director at the Cape Cod and Islands Community Mental Health Center(1996-2000), as medical director of Gosnold on Cape Cod outpatient clinics(2000-2004), as staff psychiatrist for AHRC New York(2005-2009), and as medical director of the Kent Hospital (Warwick, RI) psychiatric care unit (2009-2017). Since 2017, Dr. Tesar has served as staff psychiatrist at Butler Hospital (Providence, RI) in both the inpatient and partial hospital programs. Dr. Tesar is also a self-taught computer programmer whose experience includes development of a database system and dynamically driven website for a real estate company in New York City. Dr. Tesar has a strong interest in developing computer systems that enhance psychiatric care.